Tony Mowbray would love Boro to be the footballing equivalent of the Green Bay Packers.

But he believes it’s unrealistic at the moment to pack the side full of locally-recruited players from the Academy.

The hugely-successful gridiron team have a fanatical fan base that’s fiercely proud of its status as one of the smallest franchises in the NFL.

They’ve sold out every home game since 1960 and their stadium currently has a capacity of 79,000.

There are also more than 80,000 people on the waiting list for season tickets.

Based well away from the major US cities, Green Bay is located in unfashionable Mid-Western state of Wisconsin and their fans have embraced the originally derogative nickname Cheeseheads.

The comparisons with Boro are pretty obvious. Based in the unfashionable North-east, the club has struggled over the years to be taken seriously by the London-based press and Teesside is still often derided by outsiders.

In recent years, many Boro fans have taken to calling themselves Smoggies, initially a term of abuse.

Mowbray is aware of the fans’ desire to see young, homegrown players like Luke Williams in the team but insist they must be ready.

He knows one of the reasons why the 1986/87 generation caught the imagination of the Teesside public was the fact that the team was largely homegrown, engendering a fierce local pride.

“We have to be careful to put it into context,” said Mowbray.

“We have to be careful because I know there’s an element who would want our whole team full of young players - nobody more than me.

“I’ve spoken before about the Green Bay Packers.

“It’s a community where even if they are getting battered, 85,000 stays until the end because they are showing solidarity with their team and town even in the cold of where that place is.

“I like stories like that. I would like our team to be full of Teesside boys in a stadium full of Teesside people who are taking on the world and yet if they are not ready you can’t win football matches.

“I know all about 1986, but with total respect to 1986, we started that journey in the third tier of English football and it gave us a better chance to win and be successful as we went along.

“We are in the Championship now with the expectation of being in the Premier League and the starting point is too high, if that makes sense, to throw all of the young players in.

“We wouldn’t win if we threw all the young lads in together and the fans would get despondent and it would be self destructive to do that.”